Hundreds of people from all over Yorkshire and even further afield turned out to Shepley enjoy a three-day festival of dance, fun and top quality bands.
The ninth three-day Shepley Spring Festival started on Friday evening and once again featured some of the very best performers in traditional music, song and dance from Britain and beyond.
Festival director Nikki Hampson said: “We moved to a new site in 2015 and it’s here that we have developed the facilities and we brought another crop of top quality musicians”.
Among those taking part was the recently chosen Best Group at the BBC Folk Awards, The Young’uns.
Other headliners were Anxo Lorenzo from Galicia, Rura from Scotland, along with Nancy Kerr and the Sweet Visitor Band, Melrose Quartet and another BBC Folk Awards winner from this year, Sam Kelly, who won the Horizon Award.
There were more than 30 other performers and groups including Allan Yn Y Fan from Wales, the hilarious Belshazzar’s Feast and shanty singing from Kimber’s Men.
But the festival is a great deal more than simply a folk festival.
Voted Village Festival of the Year in 2012, the local community has embraced the event and made it a really friendly, family weekend with a huge range of things to entertain everyone.
For example, anyone pulling into The Black Bull pub on Saturday morning would have found the Barnsley-based Frumptarn Guggenband belting out some rousing classics to visitors as they made their way up the hill to the festival proper.
Nigel Bath, one of the band members, from Holmfirth, said: “It’s a great weekend and we keep coming back. It’s been a very enjoyable event so far.
“We play at The Sovereign, The Black Bull and The Farmers Boy.”
Skelmanthorpe Brass Band, local singer Will Noble and community choir Shepley Singers entertained the crowds while a host of workshops allowed people to learn new skills and expand old ones.
Venues and pubs around Shepley village hosted dance displays, music, dance and song sessions and ceilidhs and there was a full programme of children’s activities including the ever popular Panic Circus.
